We propose an experiment in which the phonon excitation of ion(s) in a trap, with a trap frequency exponentially modulated at rate κ, exhibits a thermal spectrum with an "Unruh" temperature given by T=hbar*kappa. We discuss the similarities of this experiment to the usual Unruh effect for quantum fields and uniformly accelerated detectors. We demonstrate a new Unruh effect for detectors that respond to anti-normally ordered moments using the ion's first blue sideband transition.
@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0411096,
title = {The Unruh effect in an Ion Trap: An Analogy},
author = {P. M. Alsing and J. P. Dowling and G. J. Milburn},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0411096},
year = {2007}
}